Marianne Thyssen,Member of the Commission. – Madam President, I am pleased to join you today for this debate on the future Erasmus programme. I think we all agree that Erasmus is the European Union’s most iconic programme and one of its biggest success stories. Erasmus is a true expression of what the European Union stands for and what it can do for our people. It has changed the lives of millions of Europeans and changed them for the better.

With this in mind, the Commission has tabled an ambitious proposal for a new Erasmus programme. We propose to double the budget and build on the success of the current programme. At the same time, we propose to add some promising new elements.

Let me first of all thank the rapporteur, Mr Zver, and his shadow rapporteurs, as well as all the Members of the Committee on Culture and Education (CULT) and, of course, of the other committees that give an opinion, and all those who have contributed to this report. The Commission is fully aware that the programme and its participants from universities, FET colleges, apprentices and high schools, are just as dear to you as they are to us. I would therefore like to take this occasion to wholeheartedly thank you for your enthusiasm and for your support for the Commission’s proposal.

The Commission is also happy to see that our two institutions have largely converging positions on most features of the future programmes. We share the Parliament’s objectives to make the programme even more inclusive, to make it simpler for our beneficiaries and to further exploit the potential for synergies with other sources of EU funding. Fundamentally, we want Erasmus to reach more people and especially people from diverse socio—economic backgrounds. We want Erasmus to become more open to smaller organisations, notably by cutting the paperwork. We also want to boost mobility for school pupils, learners in vocational education and training, and for youth exchanges. This will strongly diversify the profile of Erasmus participants.

I know that this House takes a lot of interest in synergies and complementarities between EU funding programmes, and I can assure you that Erasmus will benefit from this. For example, the future European Social Fund Plus could top up individual mobility grants to support people with fewer opportunities or skill up the results of successful Erasmus projects. For this to become a reality, we need to involve all actors, including at national and regional level. What matters most is that we put funding to its best and most efficient use.

The future Erasmus programme will also be instrumental in creating a genuine European education area by 2025, where learners can move freely across borders and between disciplines, and where education and training systems are inclusive, innovative and geared towards lifelong learning. I appreciate that you support the Commission in this effort.

In order to help turn this vision into reality, the future Erasmus programme will support ambitious new initiatives, such as the European Universities Initiative or the Centres of Vocational Excellence. They have the potential to become new flagships of the programme, together with the new DiscoverEU initiative. The idea for DiscoverEU, namely to offer 18-year-old young people a ticket to travel Europe, has enormous potential, especially if it is reinforced with a strong learning dimension, as you rightly request.

It’s now important that we negotiate the new programme quickly so that it will soon be a reality. The Commission therefore regrets that the Parliament is not willing to start negotiations for Erasmus before the elections, while the Commission and the Presidency would have been keen to do so. We would consider it a pity if this well-known and successful programme risked delays in kicking off due to a late start of the negotiations.

The Commission believes that this report provides a good basis to reach an agreement between the institutions swiftly. I am convinced that the European Parliament will again be a powerful ally in creating a strong and vibrant new Erasmus programme. Rest assured that the Commission will be an honest broker in this process.

Jill Evans, on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group. – Madam President, I am delighted to have played a role in this update of the excellent Erasmus+ programme 2021-2027. I congratulate the rapporteur and thank him for his positive and constructive approach. Many thousands of students and young people in Wales, like elsewhere, have benefited from the opportunities that Erasmus offered. Our universities in particular have had the pleasure of hosting young people from across the European Union.

The Commission said we have to have ambition to empower young people. I believe we’ve achieved that here. From the start, one of the priorities of my group, the Greens/EFA Group, was to support the tripling of the budget to meet the target of tripling the number of people taking part, because that is ambition. I believe the new programme will be simpler, more open to all individuals from all education sectors and phases, and will help tackle many of the problems we face.

And finally, if we leave the EU, the loss of Erasmus to Wales would be a huge blow. That is why I am pleased that this report allows for the continued participation of third countries. You can be sure that given the opportunity, Wales will still be an active and enthusiastic partner, and that’s the positive message that I would like to leave with you. Diolch yn fawr iawn. (Google Translate)

Seán Kelly (PPE). – Mr President, Erasmus+ is well named because it’s a plus-plus or win-win for students and the European Union. In my home constituency, our great university, University College Cork, places students on Erasmus here in the University of Strasbourg every year, and every year over the last ten years, some of them come in to me on internships. They make a massive contribution. I have two at the minute – Nina and Alana. It’s wonderful for them, it’s wonderful for me and it’s wonderful for their education, especially learning language skills. I hope to continue doing that into the future if I’m re-elected.

It’s also very important that we look at expanding Erasmus, as has been said, and especially for those from disadvantaged backgrounds. That’s a real challenge for us, and it’s something we should really put every effort into. We should also be looking at a wider range of universities: technological universities, which are now coming onstream in my home country. They should definitely be more involved. Of course, as a sportsman myself, I think there are huge opportunities to expand it into sport, which would lead to best practice and indeed promote everything that’s good about European Union and sport.

Julie Ward (S&D). – Mr President, the Erasmus programme is already responsible for millions of friendships, love affairs and even babies, as it has provided the means for young people to spread their wings and look beyond borders to learn more about themselves and others through immersion in formal and informal education with peers from across Europe. We all know about the Erasmus opportunities for students to study in universities outside their Member States, but few politicians seem to know about the extraordinary youth programmes that transform the lives of disadvantaged youth. For example, the people with learning difficulties from Headway Arts in Blyth, Northumberland, who’ve been exchanging ideas and best practices with European partners, growing in confidence as a result and achieving dignity when their own government threw them on the scrapheap. Another example are the autistic students from Inscape School in Stockport who returned from their Erasmus project to set up social enterprises, including a café. I met these young people and all are dismayed at the inward-looking direction of the UK Government who would deny them a European future. Young people will not forgive those who enable Brexit.

Marianne Thyssen,Member of the Commission. – Mr President, your debate confirms the success of the Erasmus programme over the last 30 years. Erasmus has become indeed an iconic brand, symbolising the added value of the European integration project for our citizens. It contributes greatly to achieving the objectives of the first principle of the European Pillar, which is about access to education, training and lifelong learning. We agree with you that the programme can be and should be more accessible and inclusive, and this is why co-funding from other funds, such as ESF+, will be possible, also by doubling the budget we intend to triple the number of people participating in a learning experience abroad. Honourable Members of Parliament, this is not a trick. By boosting traditional mobility, by adding new and more flexible mobility formats, by optimising the grant levels, and by providing targeted financial incentives, we estimate that we can reach 12 million people from different backgrounds.

Thank you for this rich discussion and for your support in achieving this goal, also in the name of my colleague, Tibor Navracsics. I’m certain that together we will make this programme bigger and even better than it is today, and that it has the budget to meet this ambition.

To answer the question from Ms Wierinck, I can tell Ms Wierinck, and I will say it in Dutch.